Anyway, in reading through the book, I was struck by the following passage:

The only thing kids know about money is what you teach them. You set the example. Don’t expect your kids to learn how to spend their money wisely if they have watched you piss yours away on stupid stuff. Your choices will become their choices. Every dime you spend shows them how to spend their money.

I couldn’t agree with this more. While many people (ourselves included) often go to great lengths to teach their kids about money by paying them an allowance, it’s easy to forget that kids primarily learn by example. If you set a good example for your kids and they’ll learn the right lessons. If you don’t… Well… They won’t.

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While you’re not going to put your kids through college on Upromise alone, you can earn a good bit of money on the side for doing almost nothing. In fact, we’ve actually earned a couple hundred dollars simply by registering our grocery and drug store affinity cards as well as our main credit cards with UPromise.

Once you’ve set things up, you’ll receive cash rewards (deposited into your account) for purchasing certain brands at the grocery or drug store, as well as for using your credit cards at certain restaurants. For us, this has been a set-and-forget sort of thing in that we just go about our everyday business and pick up the rewards when we happen to do the right things — you really don’t have to alter your buying habits to benefit.

Note that you can earn even more by making online purchases through their “mall” or by applying for their credit card, though neither of these things are necessary.

So what can you do with your earnings? While Upromise encourages you to move your funds directly into a 529 account, you can also withdraw your funds simply by writing to them to request a check.

Click here to get started.

Once you’ve signed up, just be sure to activate your account.

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In short, the Child Tax Credit the federal income tax that you owe by up to $1,000 for each qualifying child under the age of 17. In other words, it’s not a deduction (which reduces your taxable income and thus reduces your taxes fractionally). Rather, it’s a credit that gets taken straight off the top of your tax bill.

According to the IRS, a qualifying child is a child who:

1. Is your son, daughter, stepchild, foster child, brother, sister, stepbrother, stepsister, or a descendant of any of them (for example, your grandchild, niece, or nephew),

2. Was under age 17 at the end of 2007,

3. Did not provide over half of his or her own support for 2007,

4. Lived with you for more than half of 2007 (see Exceptions to time lived with you below), and

5. Was a U.S. citizen, a U.S. national, or a U.S. resident alien.

Furthermore:

A child is considered to have lived with you for all of 2007 if the child was born or died in 2007 and your home was this child’s home for the entire time he or she was alive. Temporary absences for special circumstances, such as for school, vacation, medical care, military service, or detention in a juvenile facility, count as time lived with you.

The maximum credit that you can claim is $1,000 per qualifying child. This is potentially, a “refundable” credit, so if your credit exceeds you tax liability, you need to fill our IRS Form 8812 to see if you qualify to claim more than you owe. Also, this credit is subject to income limits based on your modified adjusted gross income (MAGI), with the following thresholds:

Married filing jointly: $110,000
Single, head of household, or qualifying widow(er): $75,000
Married filing separately: $55,000

So if your MAGI is above these limits, the credit is phased out. Unfortunately (or perhaps I should say fortunately), we’re now beyond the phase out range, and thus can’t take advantage of this.

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As you may or may not know, Amazon has a 30 day price drop policy. In other words, if they lower their price on something that you’ve purchased within the past 30 days, they’ll issue a credit. The catch here is that you have to ask for it.

If you want to get a price drop refund, just follow these simple steps:

(1) Visit “Your Account” and look at all invoices from the past thirty days.

(2) Click on the item names to pull up the current item description/price and compare to the price that you paid.

(3) If you paid more than the current price, copy down the order number and go to:

» Returns and Refunds Contact Form

(4) Check of the item(s) in question and then click the e-mail button. Select “Refund Inquiry” as your subject.

(5) In the body of the message, tell them that the price dropped and that you want to be credited for the difference. It might help to mention the item name as well as old and new price, but I’m not sure that’s entirely is necessary.

That’s it. And keep in mind that this even works if you used a coupon and/or “Buy Both & Save” deal and the regular price later drops, even if the new ‘regular’ price is higher than what you paid after the coupon/discount.

Again, here’s the link to get started: Returns and Refunds Contact Form

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This system has worked very well, and our kids have learned some great lessons. They’ve learned the value of a dollar, how to save for big ticket items, how to splurge without going broke, and they’ve even learned the value of matching funds. Best of all, they’ve also stopped pestering us for stuff when we’re at the store. If they can’t afford it, they can’t have it, and they understand that.

Now that our youngest is about to turn three, it’s nearly time to get him in on the action. As I’ve noted in the past, we’ve found that our kids are pretty interested in money — or at least buying things — by the time they turn three. Just as importantly, they’re also patient enough to site alongside you while you count out their money and hand it over to them. I’m not sure if all kids are that way, but I see no reason to change things up in our case. If anything, Son #4 is far more precocious than his older brothers, and I’m sure he’ll love the freedom to make some buying decisions of his own.

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Awhile back we received an e-mail from a reader asking about the “real” cost of raising kids. In short, she’s heard a lot about the high cost of raising kids, and was wondering if it’s really as bad as people make it out to be. More than anything, this question seemed to have been born out of angst over what it takes to be financially “ready” to start a family.

While we’ve never really kept tabs on exactly how much having kids has added to our expenses, we learned a number of tricks for keeping the costs down. After all, when we first started having kids, we were on a shoestring budget. I was a graduate student, and my lovely and talented wife dropped from full-time to half-time employment.

Perhaps the biggest thing we did to stretch our dollars was to avoid dropping big chunks of change on baby stuff. Rather, we combed the flea market and local garage sales for barely worn bargains. And no, we weren’t scraping the bottom of the barrel — this was nice stuff. Nicer, in fact, than we would’ve been able to buy if we had bought everything new. And since babies rarely wear things out, our flea-market finds later became hand-me-downs.

In many cases, we threw down pocket change in return for nearly-new, high quality, name brand outfits that survived all four of our boys. And in some cases, the stuff was still in such good condition after going through all four boys that we ended up re-selling it in a garage sale of our own. We even found a barely used crib in the classified ads that served us well through all four kids, and which we were ultimately able to sell for nearly as much as we paid for it.

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Alabama, August 3rd-5th
District of Columbia, August 4th-12th
Georgia, August 2nd-5th
Florida, August 4th-13th
Iowa, August 3rd-4th
Missouri, August 3rd-5th
New Mexico, August 3rd-5th
North Carolina, August 3rd-5th
Oklahoma, August 3rd-5th
South Carolina, August 3rd-5th
Tennessee, August 3rd-5th
Virginia, August 3rd-5th

In contrast, residents of the following states still have a bit of time to get ready for their tax holiday:

Connecticut, August 19th-25th
Texas, August 17th-19th

If you’re lucky enough to live in a state that offers a sales tax holiday, be sure to use it wisely… Don’t go out and buy stuff just because it’s tax free.

For full details: 2007 State Tax Holidays

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» The Five Year Old Vandal
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Alabama, August 3rd-5th
Clothing – $100
Computers – $750
School supplies – $50
Books – $30

Connecticut, August 19th-25th
Clothing – $300

District of Columbia, August 4th-12th
Clothing – $100
School supplies – $100

Georgia, August 2nd-5th
Clothing – $100
School supplies – $20
Computers – $1,500

Florida, August 4th-13th
Clothing – $50
School supplies – $10

Iowa, August 3rd-4th
Clothing – $100

Missouri, August 3rd-5th
Clothing – $100
Computers – $3500
School supplies – $50

New Mexico, August 3rd-5th
Clothing – $100
Computers – $1,000
School supplies – $15

North Carolina, August 3rd-5th
Clothing – $100
School supplies – $100
Computers – $3,500
Other computer items – $250
Sports equipment – $50

Oklahoma, August 3rd-5th
Clothing – $100

South Carolina, August 3rd-5th
Clothing
School supplies
Computers
Linens

Tennessee, August 3rd-5th
Clothing – $100
School supplies – $100
Computers – $1,500

Texas, August 17th-19th
Clothing and backpacks – $100

Virginia, August 3rd-5th
Clothing – $100
School supplies – $20

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» The Best of August 2007
» 2007 Child Tax Credit
» Q&A: 2006 Child Tax Credit
» Happy New Year, and a Holiday Recap

According to a local economic expert, however, this plan isn’t being applied in a very efficient manner — they’re paying mothers the same amount for every child, including the first one, yet many people would have had that child anyway. Beyond this, Australia’s not actually at risk of a declining population size, which makes this policy all the more curious.

As odd as this all might sound, Australia isn’t alone. In fact, Singapore has a similar payment scheme. I’ve also written about Korean companies that are offering incentives to couples that have kids, and of course the Child Tax Credit here in the United States.

Is it just me, or is there something sort of whack with all of this? Don’t get me wrong, we’re obviously not against large families, but… We had our kids because we wanted them, not because someone was paying us or offering incentives.

[Source: News.com.au]

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» From the Archives (May 20th – May 26th)
» From the Archives (April 29th – May 5th)
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